Cultivation, or the Dao of Immortal Cultivation, is the process of elevating oneself from a mortal to an Immortal. As one progresses through the stages of Cultivation, they gain lifespan, regenerative abilities, and, for Heaven/Earth practitioners, come to resemble stars and eventually effect Fate itself.
Cultivators themselves bring change to the Heavenly Mechanism, and since ancient times, cultivators have also been called Heaven-Defiers.
The Cultivation is a great Immortal Art created by the Future King.
Cultivation Realms
The cultivation realms can be divided into the Three Great Boundaries Of Cultivation (수선삼계/修仙三界): Minor Boundary (소경계/小境界), Middle Boundary (중경계/中境界), and Great Boundary (대경계/大境界). At the Minor Boundary, one begins to break free of their mortality. At the Middle Boundary, one wields attraction forces. At the Great Boundary, one becomes a True Immortal.
Star Shattering is the stage where one begins to step into divinity.
Overview
Cultivation in the Three Thousand Worlds can be grouped into three categories: Heaven Path, Earth Path, and Heart Path. The first two are also known as the Immortal Family Methods which share the same cultivation stages found above. In contrast, the Heart Path has its own distinct realms. Certain martial arts/Heart Path realms have their equivalent among the Heaven/Earth Path realms; these comparisons are shown in the table above.
Heaven Path
The Heaven Path is practised by the Heaven Tribe, including the Human Race, whose enlightenments are based on [Heaven]. Their cultivation revolves around conducting rituals at the Plane of Fate to descend to the Planes of Qi/Soul.
Earth Path
The Earth Path is practiced by the Earth Tribe, commonly made up of animals who gain a spiritual awakening, demon beasts; whose enlightenments are based on [Earth]. Their cultivation revolves around elevating from the Plane of Qi to the Planes of Soul/Fate by exploding yin-yang spiritual energy within their bodies. Those who survive and withstand the explosions will strengthen themselves.
Heart Path
The Heart Path is practiced by the Heart Tribe. Those who obsessively struggle find themselves becoming a Heart Tribe member. Martial Arts and consciousness techniques mastered to the extreme may also ascend to the Heart Path. They masterfully manipulate the Plane of Soul, higher than Qi and lower than Fate.
Other Information
All Streams Return to the Origin (萬流歸宗)
At the Lower Boundary, Heaven and Earth Paths each have very different rituals. However, at the Middle Boundary, they begin to converge. At the Four-Axis stage, the Axis building rituals are largely identical. At the Star Shattering stage, all beings including the Heart Tribe must sever their emotions. At Entering Nirvana, all beings undergo the True Immortal Ascension Ritual.
Dual Cultivation Paths, Three Great Ultimates (三太極)
It is possible to learn multiple paths at once. Theoretically, the Heaven Tribe can practice all three methods, the Earth Tribe can practice Earth and Heart Paths, while the Heart Tribe can only practice the Heart Path. The Earth Tribe races lack the vision of fate of the Heaven Tribe, thus they are unable to conduct Heaven Path rituals. The Heart Tribe either lack the vision of fate or are untalented in the Heaven Path, and their bodies are also too weak to withstand Earth Path cultivation. While it is possible for the Heaven and Earth Tribes to learn the Heart Path, enlightenment of the Immortal Family Methods fundamentally contradict that of the Heart Path, rendering it almost impossible to achieve Manifestation.
The Penglai Palace in the Bright Cold Realm is renowned for their Great Mountain Splitting Emperor Technique, a powerful attack and defense that is a Dual Heaven and Earth Cultivation method. The Black Scaled Fish Commanding Sect in Bright Cold Realm also practices Dual Heaven and Earth Cultivation. The Fighting Ghost Race is known to practice Heaven Tribe methods while refining their Fighting Steps, what they call their Heart Path. Practicing two paths allows one to attack at one or two sub-realms above their station.
Seo Eun-hyun and Hyeon Mu are the only two known to have practiced all three paths simultaneously, giving rise to the Three Great Ultimates (三太極). In combination with Mad Lord's puppet circuitry, the Three Great Ultimates allows him to attack at one or two whole realms above what should be possible, but became obsolete past Sacred Vessel stage, as the boost given was minimal.
True Immortals
True Immortal stage cultivation follows the path of a [Seat] and [Origin Essence], which are the fundamental concepts and laws through which wisdom flows from in Mount Sumeru. The stages progress as follows:
- Vestige Liberation Immortal: Have shed their original bodies and reached the Greater Boundary, reached by practitioners of Heaven and Earths cultivations methods.
- Upper Immortal (Heaven/Earth): This stage is split into two types, those that follow the pathway of the Absolute of Fate (Heaven), and those that follow the pathway of Absolute of History (Earth). This stage is the difference between Heaven Immortals, and Immortal Beasts. Note that just being born as part of the Heaven tribe or the Earth tribe doesn't mean that you have to follow the same path you were born on, Spirit Beasts at the stage of Upper Immortals could follow the path of Heaven.
- Great Net (大羅): This stage is where one manages to control a portion of the True Immortal Realm, as well as reach the peak of their [path]. This is the stage at which a True Immortal can open up a Middle Realm within their bodies, before this they would have just become a decaying corpse realm in the Interdimensional Void upon death. This is also the stage at which a True Immortal can choose if they wish to continue to advance or not through accomplishing greater and greater feats and cultivating the Great Net formula, which merges one's self with alternate versions of one's past self (the Earth pathway) or future self (the Heaven pathway), enlarging their weight-class and increasing their 'rank'. At a certain rank, one is able to reach and try break through to the dimension containing their [Seat] and [Origin Essence], qualifying one to try ascend to Immortal Lord.
- Immortal Lord (Heavenly/True): An Great Net Immortal that has broken through to the [Origin Essence] where their path flows from and successfully overlaid their domain onto the Origin Essence so as to draw power from the Origin Essence directly is said to have seized the Seat of that Origin Essence and successfully advanced as Immortal Lords. However, there exists only one [Seat] per [path]. If there is already an Immortal Lord or Supreme Deity at the peak of your path, it is impossible to ascend past Great Net, but one can attempt to take the seat through interpreting it in more ways, achieving it more, and asserting your interpretations more strongly. This is possible due to the fact that, depending on the [Seat] holder, there might be different interpretations, like how under the [Owner of Salt Mountain], the Salt Mountain [Seat] was seen as divine and sacred, while under [Great Mountain Supreme Deity], it is seen as devilish. Immortal Lords continue cultivation through the Great Net formula to increase their weight-class and rank in order to fully seize their Origin Essence and ascend to Supreme Deity. Those who do not eventually get consumed by their Origin Essence, although this takes billions or trillions of years.
- Supreme Deity: When an Immortal Lord has accumulated enough rank and achievement to surpass their Origin Essence, they can attempt to completely seize their Origin Essence and become the [Owner] of that Origin, thereby becoming a Supreme Deity. This involves transforming the Origin into both an Audience Chamber and a Throne. One achieves this by ascending to the realm where Origin dwells, and defeating all others who walk that Dao using your own enlightenment, before attempting to seize the essence. Upon reaching this realm, one half steps out of the Immortal Cultivation System, and gains the ability to inhale Chaos, which only exists outside of Mt. Sumeru forcing one to transcend it, and because this is a fundamental ability of this rank, their existence is engraved at the very bottom of Mt. Sumeru, At this stage, their consciousness transforms into an entire heavenly domain, whose fate, life, and soul, are powered by the inhalation of Chaos.
- Heavenly Venerable / Heavenly King: A Supreme Deity that is able to draw power from the Origin Essence of one of the Absolutes is a Heavenly Venerable. This can involve being granted power from a being with control over that Absolute, or by accumulating enough rank and achievements to directly break through to the Origin Essence of an Absolute. Enders who achieve this rank through breaking through to the Origin Essence of their chosen Path (i.e., become Immortal Lords), are called Heavenly Kings.
Immortal Beasts
Immortal Beasts correspond to Immortals of the Earth Tribe. The Main Immortal Beasts are as follows:
- The Immortal Beast Black Dragon (黑龍).
- The Immortal Beast Supreme Tiger (太虎).
- The Immortal Beast Azure Peng (靑鵬).
- The Immortal Beast Lustrous Glaze Peacock (琉璃孔雀).
- The Immortal Beast Yin Ghost Black Turtle (陰鬼玄武).
- The Immortal Beast Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape (破山魔猿).
- The Immortal Beast White-Winged Heavenly Pegasus (白翼天馬).
The Immortal that corresponds to the Heart Tribe is the Heavenly Venerable of the Void.
Realms overseen by True Immortals
Governing Immortals and all Seats in this world ultimately represent realms of Immortal Cultivation, portions of a realm, or the process of Immortal Cultivation itself. Cultivators all walk the path of Immortal Cultivation, but stop at some realm along the way and are buried there. Eventually, they rot and decay, becoming the nutrients of the world once again, providing the foundation for future generations to continue on the path. Being 'eaten' is simply decaying on the path of Immortal Cultivation and becoming its foundation. And the Governing Immortals have become the very path of Immortal Cultivation itself. Therefore, dying within the realms overseen by the Governing Immortals simply makes one their daily sustenance.
The realms overseen by the Governing Immortals are as follows:
- Qi Refining 1st star: Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Qi Refining 2nd star: Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Qi Refining 3rd Star: Eastern Heavenly Venerable Flower Monarch (Previously), Great Mountain Supreme Deity (Previously)
- Qi Refining 4th star: Radiance Supreme Deity.
- Qi Refining 6th Star: Liberation Supreme Deity (Previously).
- Qi Refining 7th star: Southern Heavenly Venerable True Ultimate Eternal Life Great Emperor, Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Qi Refining 14th star: Great Mountain Supreme Deity (Previously)
- Qi Building stage: Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Core Formation stage: Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Four-Axis stage: Star Genesis Supreme Deity, Great Mountain Supreme Deity (Previously)
- Integration stage: Swallowing Heaven Supreme Deity (Previously)
- Star Shattering stage: Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Sacred Vessel stage: Liberation Supreme Deity (Previously), Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Entering Nirvana: Star Genesis Supreme Deity ,Western Heavenly Venerable Netherworld Ghost Mother.
- True Immortal advancement ritual: Western Heavenly Venerable Netherworld Ghost Mother.
- Right after becoming true immortal: Naming Supreme Deity (Previously).
- Vestige Liberation Immortal: Radiance Supreme Deity, Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Upper Immortal: Star Genesis Supreme Deity, Great Mountain Supreme Deity (Previously)
- Great Net Immortal: True Martial Great Emperor (Previously), True Ultimate Eternal Life Great Emperor, Eastern Heavenly Venerable Flower Monarch (Previously) and Star Genesis Supreme Deity.
- Immortal Lord: Radiance Supreme Deity, Emptiness Supreme Deity.
Lifespan Assigned by Heaven
From the moment an individual is born, one is attracted towards death, which is the force of attraction of their fate. Fate works like a sea of stars and a individual journeys through these stars, and the attraction force of death is from one of these stars. The only way to change fate is to either jump to a different star of fate or to create a star to extend one's life. Cultivators follow the latter and create a star to extend one's life. They artificially create a flow of fate by the usage of that star and increase their life and use the power they harnessed by cultivating to escape the attraction of fate.
If one practices a Heaven and Earth Dual Cultivation method, practicing both Heaven and Earth Paths will not give any additional lifespan. However, if one practices either Heaven/Earth Path(s) as well as the Heart Path, the lifespan from the Heart Path would be obtained as well as that of the Heaven/Earth Path(s).
Upon death, the soul is covered in a layer of death. The dead are pulled towards the Netherworld by an attraction force where their souls will be reincarnated, typically without memories of their previous life. The God of the Underworld created the Wheel of Reincarnation to grant all beings another chance at fulfilling their fates. Should one intend to stay in the world of the living, there are many methods to resist the pull of the Netherworld.